Vis Raghavan

HE WORKS at the top for one of the world’s best-known banks – JP Morgan – and while a few may shake their heads as environmental activists – Vis Raghavan is one of the most friendly, approachable and articulate men you could hope to meet.

In 2019, he was awarded the Man of the Year at the GG2 Leadership Awards for the way he has led the bank and his own personal rise from engineering on the factory floor to one of the pinnacle positions in the sector.

Of course, talking to the GG2 Power List, the CEO of JP Morgan in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and last Spring appointed, co-head of Global Investment Banking (along with Jim Casey), is going to draw up a shield – but it doesn’t seem like it. Far from it, Raghavan is open, interesting and humble.

Environmental activists critical of JP Morgan backing clients whose business interests are not the greenest – should be prepared to listen to Raghavan at the very least. He is down to earth and clearly a skilled operator.

The bank’s appointment of Chuka Umunna, the former prominent Shadow Labour MP and Liberal Democrat candidate at the last General Election in 2019 – as an advisor, appeared a deft move. Umunna, a former City employment lawyer, will in the newly created role, advise on the bank’s European environmental, social and governance policy.

Raghavan was quoted in a Financial Times report, as saying that Umunna would oversee pretty much everything the bank did. “Clients are looking at how they may need to adapt their business models,” it quoted him saying in relation to the environmental agenda, according to the JP Morgan statement on Umunna.

Raghavan is eminently adaptable and flexible and the bank’s success during the pandemic is partly due this commercial fleetness of foot – and in his particular case, it is not the cynical calculating banker, but someone who seems very genuine and grounded.

It is not all about money, and never has been, either for the bank, or Raghavan as an individual. This isn’t just public relations speak – it is rooted in respect and the science – he studied and trained as a scientist.

He also happens to be a vegetarian which might mean nothing to a lot of people.

He is, perhaps, a breed of banker more nurtured and moulded more by India than meets the eye. He intimates that growing up in India, and Bombay (Mumbai) especially, gave him a different perspective and one which has stood him in very good stead.

He graduated in Physics, then did a Masters in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science in Britain. Working for an American firm, General Signal in India, he got an opportunity to work – and as part of a company sponsorship – to study further – in the UK when he arrived here in 1986. He was based not in the bright lights of the capital but in Birmingham and studied at Aston University.

Here is a banker who understands nuts and bolts better than many. He later trained as a chartered accountant in addition between 1989-93, and joined Lehman Brothers that year, before moving to JP Morgan in 2000.

“General Signal gave me a choice – either go to the US or the UK, I came here because there was family and my mother was more comfortable with this than America. I had a support network and the degree programme was fascinating and my work experience was very good.”

He enjoyed his time working and studying and helped to build computer systems for many blue-chip clients working in the region.

It was during this period that he began to think about an MBA in the US, but being a pragmatic and cost-conscious character also, he eschewed an MBA in the US and plumbed for training as a chartered accountant with a Ernst and Whinney (now EY). “It’s a free business qualification,” he quips. “It was a more cost-effective solution than spending thousands of dollars on an MBA.”

He always had a curiosity for markets and was an avid reader of the Financial Times and Big Bang had just happened to the City, courtesy of Margaret Thatcher. “You were seeing the beginning of quantitative techniques being used in a trading context – the use of algorithms and similar – it brought together a nice mixture of finance and mathematical skills.”

For Lehman, he worked in trading analysis and the combinations of his technical and social skills meant he was primed for advancement. He received further training in the US and learnt the banking business from the bottom up. “You have to be intellectually solid,” he says in the way of entry level acumen required at JP Morgan and the sector in general.

But beyond that he credits Mumbai, his work in Birmingham and ‘EQ’ (emotional intelligence) as the qualities that allowed him to step into management. “Working in a multitude of industries (in and around Birmingham) and growing up in India and I think living in Bombay, all helped. It makes you street smart and you hone your EQ which is valuable and important in an industry like this – and it’s the mix of amazing people you come across. I savoured these multiple experiences.”

What about racism in the workplace? “I have to be candid, I didn’t experience any racism. I was on the shop floor, fixing circuit boards when I first came here and I ate in factory canteens– I do not remember a jibe or anything I felt, maybe I’ve been lucky or I’m too thick-skinned.”

He said one of the more pressing challenges at that time was finding vegetarian fare. “I lived on cauliflower cheese and chips for an extended time, I made up for it with desserts such as rice pudding,” he reflects humorously.

So, where does the role of diversity sit in an organisation which has a brown man in considerable authority. “We need to reflect the fabric of the societies we live in,” he says responding to GG2 Power List. “If you’re walking on the

street, and you are seeing a multitude of ethnicities – they are also the consumers of our clients and so you have got to reflect that.”

From Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet (the company behind Google) to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft – the tech space in the US is a massive Indian success story. They have exceptional technical ability, but also a sure touch with people, managing them and developing a culture of innovation and commercial success.

Raghavan is cut from the same mould – but could he be in a similar position for a UK bank which also goes back many years? An Indian-origin wave of talent virtually rules Silicon Valley now, but why is it the very same Indians in India are not creating worldbeating firms? “They are coming,” he says.

“There is a very entrepreneurial mindset – look at the Serum Institute of India (it is one of the largest producers of vaccines in the world) – the DNA exists, the intellectual capability is there and there’s a desire to succeed.”

Raghavan is married, has four teenage children, enjoys his sport, especially cricket and tennis. The bank has major sponsorships with both. He has homes in London and California, and is an Arsenal fan.